All Chapters of Reborn to take over the stage : Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

Ethan stared at the golden door on his palm.Three knocks came from inside his consciousness.Then silence.His daughter gripped his hand, her little fingers trembling against his skin.Daddy, no open.Ethan knelt beside her.I won't open anything until I understand what's on the other side.She nodded, but her eyes remained fixed on his palm.Behind the cracked glass, Evan struck the wall again. Ethan! Can you hear me?Ethan turned.Yes. What happened to everyone else?I don't know. One moment they were here, and the next the laboratory separated into different realities. I can see traces of them, but I can't reach them. Can you get out?Evan glanced at the cracks spreading across his prison.Not without opening the boundary.Ethan looked at the golden door on his palm. And if I open it? We might release something we cannot put back.Three knocks sounded again.This time, Ethan felt them in his chest.A memory rose from somewhere deep within him. He was a child, standing outside

"Daddy, I'm home."The voice came from the stranger wearing Ethan's daughter's face.But the stranger had not moved her lips.She remained on her knees before the golden door, trembling as something beneath her skin shifted like a shadow trying to escape a locked room.Ethan pulled his real daughter behind him."Who are you?" he demanded.The shadow standing near the broken laboratory wall answered."That is the wrong question."Ethan turned toward the figure wearing his face."Then give me the right one."The shadow swallowed hard."What is inside her?"The stranger suddenly screamed.Her fingers dug into the floor. Golden lines spread from beneath her palms, forming a pattern that resembled the mark on Ethan's hand. Five points appeared around a black circle, but the circle was no longer swallowing the light.Something was pressing outward from inside it.The stranger looked up at Ethan."Please don't let it use my face."Her voice was different now. It was frightened, desperate, an

The laughter continued behind the golden door.It was not loud, but it filled the laboratory with a terrible familiarity. Ethan had heard that laughter before, although he could not remember where.His daughter stirred in his arms."Daddy.""I'm here, sweetheart."She lifted her head and looked toward the boy standing beside the door."Friend sad."The boy lowered his eyes.Ethan carefully set his daughter on her feet, keeping one hand on her shoulder."Can you tell me what happened?"The boy looked at him."You really don't remember?""No.""Not even the room?"Ethan's chest tightened."I saw a memory. I saw someone who looked like me standing beside a machine. I heard him order that a child be left behind."The boy nodded."That was you.""I never made that choice.""You did."The answer came without anger. Somehow, that made it worse.The boy rubbed his wrist where the golden thread had been attached."You were afraid."Ethan stared at him."Afraid of what?""Of being alone."The b

Ethan saw the smile before he saw the face.It was his smile.The same slight lift at the corner of his mouth. The same expression he sometimes wore when his daughter did something unexpected and he wanted to hide how proud he was.But this smile held no warmth.The man standing in the darkness had one hand wrapped around Ethan's daughter's wrist.The little girl struggled to free herself."Daddy!"Ethan lunged forward."Let her go!"The stranger pulled the child behind him."Which one of us are you talking to?"Ethan stopped.The man looked exactly like him. His clothes were identical, even down to the small tear near the left sleeve. But there was something different about his eyes.They were not empty.They were full of memories.Memories Ethan had never experienced.The stranger leaned toward the little girl."Tell him."She shook her head."Tell him which father you trust.""Daddy Ethan!"The stranger laughed."That isn't an answer. I have his face, his memories, and the promises

The first scream came from the girl holding Ethan’s daughter’s hand.It was not a scream of fear.It was the sound of someone being erased.The black-eyed girl’s fingers began to disappear, starting at the tips. Her skin turned transparent, revealing a darkness beneath it that had no bones, no blood, and no shape Ethan could understand.His daughter grabbed her hand with both of hers.“No!”The white space shuddered.A crack tore across the emptiness above them. Then another. Something enormous pressed against the other side, forcing its way into a world that had never been meant to contain it.Ethan saw his daughter’s face.He saw the terror in her eyes.And for one terrible second, he was back in the laboratory, watching a child disappear while machines continued running as if nothing important had happened.Not again.He threw himself toward her.“LET HER GO!”He struck the invisible barrier between them with both hands. Pain burst through his palms, but he hit it again. And again.